Monday, September 04, 2017

~ A Little Q&A ~


From time to time
 I get questions asked of me about my rug hooking 
and my wonky-way of doing things.

here are a few answers ~

"How high are your loops?"
 I pull my loops as high as my largest strip of wool....
I tend to hook with different widths of wool all on one rug, from 3/8" up to a 9 cut.
If the largest strip I'm working with is a 9 cut, then I will pull all of my loops up to that height...even the 7 cut will be pulled up to match the height of the 9 cut so it doesn't get 'lost' between rows.
BUT that is not always necessarily consistent for me either! if I am hooking a rug and really want it to look old & worn, then I will intentionally hook my smaller strips {such as an outline or beauty line} lower than the rest of the surrounding loops, so they 'sink in' a bit.
Instant Age!




"How to you achieve detail on your faces suing a larger cut?"
After I hook the general outline of the motif 
{in this case, the witch's profile below and the moon's profile under that} I will simply turn my wool strips with my loop lifter or fingers to manipulate the way the loops go.
see her pointy nose? I turned the very tip of her nose to make it go an almost opposite direction from the loops along her brow, down the bridge.
Then I fill-in the rest making sure not to over-pack my loops.



"How do you hide your tails?"
 I don't!
 I don't mind them at all...they lend an old look and texture to my rugs.
But I make sure not to have lots of tails all together in one place...spread them around a bit.
you can see the tree trunk {below} has tails smack dab in the middle where two colors have met.


"How do you color plan your rugs?" 
I have a favorite color palette that I use, 
which I have based off of a DMC cotton floss color palette.
I favor more muted tones, rather than brights ~
 but have no problem mixing in a little 'poison' to make motifs spark!
I will look at each motif on my rug design, and color plan each one separately
 ~ from there, if a color doesn't fit in with the rest, out it goes!
I love black-browns, green-blacks, orange-reds, golden-mustards, yellow-greens, olive-greens, yellow-blues, and greyish-taupes.
I hand dye some of my wools {using Pro Chem} and really should dye more!} but also love using as-is wools from The Wool Studio & Heavens To Betsy.


"Where is you favorite place to hook?"
I have to say in my garden. 
The natural light is superb, and I enjoy the birds, bees and occasional kitten for company ;)
I also love hooking outside because there is less wool dust to clean up HA!
Aside from there, I hook in our Keeping Room and/or my Sewing Room here in the farmhouse,
or out in the Farm Shop.

"What is your preferred backing to hook on?"
I prefer Dorr Mill's bleached linen.
it is nice & bright, sturdy, and can accommodate all of my different wool strips nicely...
and it is virtually 'hairless' and not scratchy. Hooks Like Buttah!



"What kind of tools do you use?"
~ I prefer to use my steel shank primitive hook that Peter makes, it pulls a 7 up to a 10 cut wonderfully and doesn't 'snag' the wool.
I use my off-set scissors or a small pair of Fiskar snips while I'm working.
 I use a Fraser 500 clamp-style cutter, on a Stripper's Tote© that Peter designed to hold it ~ 
and I use his Hookinpunch© Adjustable Gripper Frame.

"How long have you been a hooker?"
a long time....I think this will mark my 30th year, as I began my journey into rug hooking right after Peter & I were married in October of 1987.
*wow*

"Do you teach?" 
~ yep.
love to travel! have hook & broom will travel! 
I am a super-informal teacher, just ask anyone who has been in one of my classes ;)
I also teach here in our Farm Shop and hold weekly Hook In's on Saturdays.

in a wooly-nutshell, 
...there you have it to the best of my ability.

***FORGOT TO ADD***
that there will be NO Needle Night tonight, looking forward to seeing everyone on the 16th for our Gathering of Primitive Friends Show :)
Needle Night will resume in October, with the 1st monday night :)

Now I am off to finish the background on When Pigs Fly!

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Blessings from the Farm
 ~ Lori

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So sweet for making your fellow hookers privy to your secrets, Lori! Thirty years! Wow! No wonder your pieces are so amazing...

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for sharing! Your rug is coming along beautifully! Looking forward to seeing your finished piece!!

Saundra said...

I LOVE that design and your colors. Will have to look and see if you offer it in PDF format. Heck I still haven't taped together the sections for Lancaster Barnyard yet!!!!! Too much to hook and not enough time.

elaine allerton said...

Wow, lori,,,
Thanks for all ur tips!
Love ur linen!
Got lancaster barnyard , and its the nicest linen I have ever worked on!!
Loving that pattern,, stil, not sure which one to order, punching or hooked,,,!?
Fun fun pattern,,,,
Love that pattern you punched with wool in ur header!!
Thanks for sharing , lori,,,